Year Of The Cubs

Conservationists Are Finding Significant Increase In State's Bear Population This Spring

April 02, 2003|By STEVE GRANT; Courant Staff Writer

Conservation officer Matt Tomassone gently loosened the grip of a baby black bear that clung tenaciously by its claws to his neck and shoulders.

Suddenly, he realized this was no metaphor but the real thing.

``This is what you would call a bear hug,'' he said, breaking into a grin.

Over the past few weeks, a state Department of Environmental Protection crew has been visiting bear dens in an attempt to get its own grip on what is happening with the state's bear population.

The drill is the same: Try to immobilize the mother bear with an injection of an anesthetic; count and measure the newborn cubs, tucking them inside a warm jacket or blanket to help keep them warm, if necessary.

A morning with the crew handling the bear cubs explains why there are things like teddy bears.

The cubs weigh about 7 pounds now, and you can tuck one under your arm. Their teeth are just beginning to develop, and their fur is a glossy black, soft and clean.

Their claws are well developed. Put a cub on your shoulder, and it locks its claws into the jacket fabric, clinging peacefully for minutes at a time. Wear fleece, and it can take some serious time to disentangle a cub.

This monitoring work was an attempt by state wildlife officials to confirm their suspicions that the state's already sizeable bear population was about to take a sudden jump this spring.

During a monitoring effort that began last year, biologists noticed that few of the female bears they trapped had cubs with them. Because adult females give birth every other year, that strongly suggested that many females would deliver cubs this year.

The monitoring crew traveled to Northwest Connecticut during late March, entering the dens of bears still in their inactive winter state, checking for the cubs, which are usually born in the den in January.

In seven dens checked as part of a sample, all of the females had cubs, 17 cubs in all from the 7 females.

With the state's bear population already in the hundreds, and the number of cubs confirmed this year, but a fraction of those born, exponential growth in the overall population seems assured in coming years.

``Our bear population is going to grow. And it is going to be a growing concern as it goes on,'' said Paul Rego, a wildlife biologist who oversees the agency's bear-monitoring work.

In New Jersey, wildlife officials are dealing with controversy over plans to allow a hunting season for bears in the Garden State, which now has several thousand bears, many of them proving to be a nuisance in outlying suburbs and even some urban areas. And complaints of roaming bears raiding bird feeders already are being reported in much of New England.

Connecticut is not considering a hunting season for bears, but it is not out of the question, Rego said.

On a recent day, with some patches of snow still on the ground in the shadiest patches of forest, Rego and the crew crept up to a den on Metropolitan District Commission land in Barkhamsted, close to the Barkhamsted Reservoir. It was a brushpile den, a pile of fallen limbs over a birch trunk, much of the den open and exposed to the elements.

People assume that a black bear is far more likely to attack a human when it has cubs in tow, but Rego says that is not true.

``There are a lot of state agencies doing research on bears -- Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York -- and all these states have done what we call den work just thousands of times. People sometimes crawl into the den entrance of females with cubs. The greatest chance of injury perhaps is the bear running a person over trying to get away. It is extremely rare for them to really be aggressive. They will try to get away. More often they will sit there and cower in the corner.''

``There is a potential when we get close that she will just get up and run off,'' Rego said. He carried a jab stick with the anesthetic and when he got close -- on his hands and knees -- he poked the mother bear. When the first injection appeared insufficient, he jabbed again -- and the bear bolted through the woods, before falling to the ground about a quarter-mile away.

In the den were two cubs, each about 5 1/2 pounds, whining. Mark Freeman, a research assistant with the crew, wrapped them in a blanket to keep them warm before they were identified by sex -- one male and one female -- and measured.

Once the cubs were measured and the mother bear located, the crew fashioned a new den close to the spot where the mother had fallen after the drug took effect. She was weighed -- 197 pounds -- and carried to the new den, where she would awake hours later. The cubs were put back with the mother and quickly nestled themselves into her fur.

Rego said he was certain the mother and cubs would remain in the new den comfortably and emerge in mid-April to begin foraging for food.